Re: Is it cruel to train and use guide dogs
Originally Posted by
pauline3
->
It comes instinctively for Collies to herd sheep, i have watched my friends, she has sheep + 2 Collies, we tried doing it ourselves at times, useless we were,
We had to call in the Collies,
We had Border Collies, geese and ducks. I was worried that the ducks and geese were losing weight yet there was plenty of food available to them.
I came home early from work one day and happened to look out the window to see my collie herding the ducks and geese from one corner of the property to another corner where he kept them for a while before moving them on to another corner. The poultry were losing weight because they were unable to get to their food.
Anyway I went out to tell the dog off, he knew he was in the wrong and the birds thrived again from then on.
As a corollary to this story. The ducks (there were three) somehow realised that the dog wasn't able to "boss" them and when the dog was lying resting outdoors would then climb on to his legs or body and sit there with him. I am not sure that the dog actually liked this at all but seemed to tolerate it. However the birds went in all directions when he got up.
BTW I originally got the birds (three Geese, three ducks) for two reasons I love duck and geese eggs and secondly because the land had been overgrown with miniature bamboo gone mad, at night if you walked out the ground crunched under foot as it was alive with snails. The ducks were so effective at getting rid of the snails that if i saw any snails while I was out walking i would collect them as a treat for the birds.